


Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

by drowseroger



Category: Queen (Band), Rock Music RPF
Genre: 70’s setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Lots of drama, M/M, Maylor - Freeform, Period-Typical Homophobia, Queen - Freeform, Songwriting, deacury if you squint, john is the world’s best secret keeper, only just pre-borhap, roger is not taking anyone’s shit, so much angst i’m not gonna lie to you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-19 09:10:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18133784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowseroger/pseuds/drowseroger
Summary: Being around the same three people all day, every day, for three weeks proves a lot harder than it seems. Relationships become neglected. Especially for the members of Queen, who are all quite frankly, massively melodramatic.When it comes to discussing who’s songs should go on the album, Roger is insistent that his new song should go on the album, but no one else backs him up. The others want their songs on the album, because theirs are better. Especially Brian, which leads to a bit of a lover’s tiff between the two.Brian and Roger must also reveal their relationship to their fellow bandmates while they still can, so they can get their relationship back on track.





	Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

“I put my heart and soul into this song.” Roger grumbled, looking up from the tomato he was slicing up. Being the only competent member (or so he thought) of the band, he got lumbered with all of the cooking while they were staying at the farm. Or sometimes when they were at home, and just couldn’t be bothered to cook for themselves. Which was fine, because he didn’t mind and the guys liked his cooking. It was a good system, and it worked. That was, until Roger got pissed off and had knives at his disposal. 

“No one is disputing that.” John reassured the drummer, waving his fork as he spoke. The tension in the kitchen had suddenly grown thicker, and Brian grew oddly silent. It was too early in the morning for him to be hearing this conversation, let alone being involved in it. 

“And you don’t like it, because _you_ want _your_ songs on the album!” 

Roger now turned around completely, pointing at John accusingly as he spoke. It wasn’t fair. He was a bloody good songwriter. He knew that; John knew that; Brian knew that. Even Freddie knew. He had a lot to contribute to the band other than drum loops and good looks, including this song. But Roger’s songs always got shoved to the B-Side of their albums or totally dismissed, and he’d just about had enough of it. 

Brian slumped against his hand and dropped his gaze. He really didn’t have the energy to deal with the drummer’s outbursts today, but he could feel an argument coming along, nonetheless. 

“It’s not that, Roger.” John responded on behalf of both men, in a desperate attempt to keep the peace. 

“Then what is it?” 

Brian finally looked up from the table, with a somewhat heavy heart. Of all people, he knew how much effort Roger had put into his new song. He tried so hard to like it, but it was to no avail. No matter how many times he read through the lyrics or heard Roger sing it to him, he hated it with a burning passion. 

_“I’m In Love With My Car.”_ Brian piped up in a matter-of-fact tone, meeting Roger’s glare. A small smile played on the corner of his lips as the name of the song that he hated so much passed his lips, trying to lessen the blow. 

John nodded, a very obvious smirk on his face. He was only slightly skeptical of Roger’s new song, but was invested in the scene that was unraveling before him. 

Roger had turned back to the food he was cutting up, but looked back as Brian spoke. 

“Maybe it’s not strong enough?” Brian carefully suggested. He didn’t want to let on that he hated the drummer’s song. It had potential, he couldn’t lie. But at the same time, it was the biggest heap of shit he had ever heard. 

John looked down to his plate to smile wider, trying so hard to not laugh. 

“What does that even mean?” Roger pried, his voice laced with poison. _”Not strong enough?”_

Both men looked away from each other as Freddie waltzed into the room in true style, with last night’s eyeliner smudged under his eyes. He stood himself next to John, pouring himself a cup of tea. 

“I know, I’m late. What did I miss?” He announced, in a very unapologetic tone. But no one batted an eye; Freddie’s inability to be on time was old news to them by this point. 

“Discussing Roger’s car song.” John replied airily, bringing everyone’s attention back to the domestic between the drummer and guitarist. 

Roger’s persistent glare flicked between John and Brian, completely abandoning the food he was previously cooking. 

_Sod them. If they think they’re so great, they can cook their own bloody food._

“Is it strong enough? That’s all I’m asking. If I’m on my own here, then I apologise.” Brian raised his hands up in surrender. The finality of his words offered a truce to Roger, but he wasn’t interested. 

“How does your new song go, then? Hmm?” Roger exploded, snapping up Brian’s lyrics from in front of him. Brian hadn’t proposed his new song to the rest of the band— So far he’d only showed it to Roger in the privacy of his bedroom, so he knew that he was in for a grilling.

Freddie looked up at the blonde with raised eyebrows, partially interested in the argument, and partially interested at the mention of Brian’s new song. Being away from pretty much anything mildly interesting called for desperate measures to keep themselves entertained. 

_“You call me sweet, like I’m some kind of cheese?”_ Roger read out, seething with anger. He knew that Brian’s song would end up on the main side of the album, for no reason other than the fact that Brian wrote it. His song was far better than what Brian had written; it was like someone had thrown up alphabet soup on a page and wrote a chord progression for it. Roger’s song was far more carefully thought out than that, with cleverly placed metaphors. But most importantly, it had _meaning._

“It’s good!” Brian defended, looking to John for support. 

“Wow.” Roger exclaimed in disbelief. He could not believe the audacity of the guitarist in the slightest. Maybe his song wasn’t the best he’d written, but Brian knew how much effort he had put into it. Yet he still had the nerve to mock it. 

“Is that— Is that—?” Brain started, getting so riled up that he couldn’t form a tangible sentence. _“When my hand’s on your grease gun?_ That’s very subtle, isn’t—?” He read from Roger’s own lyrics in front of him, but was very quickly cut off by the increasingly angry blonde. 

_“— It’s a metaphor, Brian!”_ Roger shot back. If his anger wasn’t obvious before, it certainly was now. He had trusted Brian with his new song as much as Brian had trusted Roger with his own. But that was the last straw, as far as Roger was concerned. 

John’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas day. “It’s just a bit weird, Roger. What exactly are you doing with that car?” He provoked, eyebrows raised. He waved his fork as he spoke again, clearly amused. He knew that something deeper was going on between Roger and Brian — He’d walked in on them cuddled up together in Brian’s room the night before, and nothing about it seemed platonic. He would have thought nothing of it, but they’d made him swear that he wouldn’t tell Freddie what he saw. 

Brian pressed his lips together in a hard line, tilting his head sideways as things slowly came to a halt. Little did he know, it was the calm before the storm. 

“Children, please!” Freddie intervened, getting both men to turn their attention back to him. “We could all murder each other, but then who would be left to record this album?”

 _Yeah, we could all murder each other._ Brian thought to himself, sneaking a quick side-glance at the blonde — his boyfriend — who stood in front of him with a hand on his hip. Even though he wasn’t trying, Roger looked so ethereal in that moment. It caught Brian off guard as he looked at him from that perspective, and almost forgot what they were arguing about until John spoke again. 

“Statistically speaking, most bands don’t fail if they break up.” The brunette commented off-hand, with a shrug. 

Roger rocked back on his heels in disbelief. His mouth opened to speak, but mouth ran incredibly dry, so no words come out, leaving his jaw hanging open before he swung forward again, leaning on the counter. 

“Why the hell would you say something like that?” Freddie frowned, just as shocked as Roger by the bassist’s comment. 

John simply shrugged, but Freddie was more focussed on Roger, who looked like he was about to throw someone out of the window. 

“Roger, there’s only room in this band for one hysterical queen.” Freddie warned, but then turned back to his cup of tea, now disinterested in the petty argument between the two musicians. It was beneath him, really. As long as he had something to sing that wasn’t crap, Freddie couldn’t care less. 

“I know why you’re angry, Roger.” Brian piped up once more, grabbing the attention of the angry blonde. 

The latter looked up, eyebrows raised. “Why?” He dug. He didn’t believe that Brian actually understood him for one second, but still decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

“‘Cause you know your song isn’t strong enough.” The guitarist cooly replied, not really thinking as he spoke. The words just slipped out of his mouth, and he instantly regretted it. But nonetheless, he looked straight at Roger with a challenging eyebrow cocked upwards.

Roger nodded very slightly, but not because he agreed. It was an indicator that he had truly had enough of Brian and his quick quips. The drummer reached for the pan on the stove, grabbing the rashers of bacon he was frying and threw them in Brian’s direction, not allowing time to register that he was a vegetarian. The meat burnt his hand, but he didn’t think much of it. He wasn’t thinking properly either, anger had blinded him. 

“Is that strong enough?” Roger sneered, shoving the pan onto the floor with a sweeping arm. The pan made a loud clatter as it hit the floor, causing John to jump out of his skin at the side of him. “What about that?” 

Brian rolled his eyes. He knew that this would happen, and now that it had begun he knew it would be very difficult to stop Roger’s outburst, so he just let it wash over him. 

Roger looked for something else he could throw that would make a noise big enough to satisfy his anger, and landed on the coffee machine. In one swift motion, he picked it up and got in position to hurl it in Brian’s direction. He was hovering just above the guitarist, in position to let go, when he finally caught his attention. 

“Not the coffee machine!” Brian and John scolded in unison. As soon as Roger placed the coffee machine back down where it belonged, Brian pushed himself up from his seat and turned to leave the room in the opposite direction that Freddie had went just moments ago. He knew that Roger would need some time alone to wear himself out with anger. In that sense, he was a lot like a toddler having a temper tantrum. 

“Think you might have annoyed him, mate.” John commented well before Brian was out of an earshot. It obviously wasn’t deliberate timing, yet the guitarist just rolled his eyes again in response. He was desperate to get away from the kitchen as quick as he could, taking the stairs two at a time to ensure that neither of the shorter men followed behind him. 

_What a twat._ Brian thought to himself with a huff as he sank down into his bed, having finally reached his room. He’d only been up and functioning for about two hours, but he was already fed up and ready to get back into bed. So that’s exactly what Brian did, not bothering to clean trail of bacon grease off his shirt, and not even bothering to change into something more comfortable. 

Just as Brian’s eyes fluttered to a close, the faint sound of someone knocking on his door forced him to open one eye for just a moment, before opting to ignore it. He assumed that it was John, wanting to joke about Roger’s new song even further. Despite being quite reserved by nature, once John found something that piqued his interest, it was hard for him to let go. As much as Brian encouraged him, he honestly couldn’t be bothered. He just wanted to go back to sleep and forget the discourse he’d started with Roger, so made no attempt to move. There would always be time to talk to John later, but the guitarist needed some time alone before he flew off the handle, too. 

“Bri? Can I come in?” 

The voice of Roger made Brian reluctantly shuffle into a sitting position, so he could look up to meet the blue eyes of the drummer, who sheepishly leaned against the doorframe. 

“I suppose so.” Brian huffed. He knew that Roger would just come in anyway; his question was more of a warning that he was entering than it was a demonstration basic manners. So there was really no point in refusing him. 

Roger flashed a knowing smirk, crossing the room as swiftly as possible with his considerably short legs. Once he’d made it to Brian’s bed, he plopped down next to him as physically close as he could without actually sitting on him. Roger greeted his boyfriend with a chaste kiss on the cheek, and then jumped straight into conversation, not wasting any time. 

“Why don’t you like my song?”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Roger.” Brian sighed, folding his arms over his chest. He had come to the safety of his own room to avoid arguing anymore. “I told you: I just don’t think it’s strong enough for the album. I never said that I didn’t like it.” 

_Lies. All Lies._ Brian repeated over and over in his head, like a mantra. But it wasn’t as much of a lie than it was Brian humouring Roger for not only the sake of his sanity, but his band and his relationship. 

“But you don’t like it. I can tell that much. But I don’t understand why!” Roger exclaimed, running a hand through his blonde locks. He wasn’t as angry as he was before. Trashing the kitchen was quite cathartic, even though he knew he would be the one to clean it all up later on. Unless he could get Paul to do it. “It’s a good song, and you know how much time and effort I put into it _for you._ ” 

The drummer now pouted, turning his head to face Brian. He put a lot of emphasis on his last words, just to add a larger impact. It was only hours ago that the two had been sitting in almost the same position, exchanging lyrics to the new songs that they’d unintentionally written for each other. 

“Okay, fine.” Brian sighed in defeat, sitting up straighter. Roger had the guitarist wrapped around his little finger without a doubt, and always knew exactly what to say to get Brian to talk. And Brian hated how very aware of it he was. “I don’t like it. But only because it’s _so obviously_ about a bloke.”

The blonde frowned back in confusion, locking eyes with Brian. Roger hadn’t written a hit song yet; he mostly just wrote songs for himself, and that was enough for him. Because if you hate your own songs, then what’s the point in playing them? But he truly felt that this song, his new song, was truly something else. _And this could be it_ , if only his band mates gave him a fighting chance. “What’s wrong with that?”

 _“What’s wrong with that?!”_ Brian mocked, eyebrows knitted together as he frowned. “Well, are you ready for people to find out about us? Because I’m not. Deacy only knows because he walked in on us last night!” The drummer sighed, recalling what had happened the previous night. 

Roger slung his arm around Brian’s shoulder, pulling the guitarist as close to him as possible. It was a simple indicator that he wanted to get closer to Brian, but wasn’t sure if he was still annoyed at him. He had every right to be, after how he’d gone off the rails. “Maybe I am.” He simply answered, with a shrug. Although it was historically out of character for him, it drove the blonde mad that he couldn’t be overly affectionate with Brian in public. At least, no more affectionate than he would be with John or Freddie. Which wouldn’t be so bad if he could at least be affectionate with Brian in front of their friends, but they couldn’t do that either. 

Brian immediately relaxed into his boyfriend’s arms, shifting himself so that he was now half sitting, half lying between Roger’s legs, with his head pressed up against his chest. Being four inches taller than Roger, he really had to wiggle down the bed so his hair wasn’t up in the blonde’s face. “Oh, you are?” 

Roger hummed in response, snaking his arms around Brian’s waist. “We’ve been dating for long enough now, haven’t we?”

“I know, but...” Brian tensed up just thinking about finally telling his friends about their relationship. It’s not that he was ashamed, not in the slightest. But he’d truly had enough of the dramatics for one day. “I can’t tell them, Rog... I just can’t.” 

Brian paused for a moment, which Roger took to his advantage. The blonde angled his head downwards to press a trail of kisses along Brian’s jawline, gently at first, more to soothe him than anything. But before long, Roger had reached the crook of Brian’s neck, and was looking at him with an evil glint in his eye. 

“Let’s show them, then.” 

“And how exactly does that make our _situation_ any better?” Brian pressed. Although he couldn’t see from his position, Roger could hear his eye roll. 

“Subtext.” Roger shot back, desperate to bring his lips back to Brian’s neck. Desperate for any kind of intimacy, before one of their friends came looking for them, which they definitely would. Although it didn’t matter too much, Roger didn’t want a repeat of the night before. 

“Yeah, alright then.” Brian responded, tilting his neck to the side to expose more of his skin, not considering the consequences that might come with giving Roger free rein of his neck. In truth, any justified answer would have been enough for him, even if it didn’t make sense. Brian was just as touch-starved as Roger, making the desperation very mutual. 

In one swift motion, Roger flipped himself so he was now sitting opposite Brian, with his legs folded underneath him and a hand on his cheek. He leaned in to Brian briefly, but then pulled away, so he could admire his boyfriend’s looks for just a second. How Roger managed to bag someone as attractive and smart as Brian was way beyond him, but it wasn’t something he mused about at length. 

A few moments passed of Roger staring at Brian a little blankly, before the latter spoke up, with a wide smirk on his face. “Take a picture, Rog. It’ll last longer.” 

The blonde was pulled out of his daze by Brian gently pushing against his shoulder with the heel of his hand, causing him to frown. 

“What?” 

Brian shook his head dismissively, still smiling brightly. Before answering his question, he leaned forwards to catch his boyfriend’s lips between his, and press a quick kiss onto them. The taller man then shuffled away, but Roger’s hand travelled to Brian’s chest, forcing him down onto the bed as he leaned down to crash his lips onto Brian’s once again. 

Roger’s kiss was more passionate; fuelled by the urgency he had built up since arriving at the farm, because they’d only been able to steal quick kisses when they were alone together. Oh, how Roger missed just being able to truly snog Brian without a care in the world. 

Brian’s hand slid up around the back of Roger’s neck, adjusting his head so that it was tilted downwards very slightly, making it easier for him to lock onto the blonde’s lips. His other hand snaked around Roger’s slim waist so he could pull him in closer, deepening the kiss.

After a good few minutes of continued kissing, Roger pulled away, much to Brian’s disgust. But it was only so he could start to kiss and nip at Brian’s neck, mumbling “Love you,” between kisses pressed into the crook of his neck, just above the collar of his shirt. 

Brian leaned his head back onto his pillow, arching his neck further towards Roger’s soft lips, desperate for more of the tingling feeling that ran down his spine as Roger gently suckled on the skin of his neck in the spot that the blonde knew would drive him wild. Just enough for the tingling sensation to spread to the rest of his body, and for a small moan to pass his lips; a simple indicator that he was truly at Roger’s mercy.

“Love you, too.”

Roger edged away from Brian, sitting upright so he could admire his work with a satisfied smirk. A bright red mark had formed on Brian’s neck as soon as the blonde had pulled away, and it was very visible. 

“You know, there’s so much more we could do before we make our little announcement...” Roger played with the hem of Brian’s shirt, one eyebrow cocked skyward. 

“Well, I’m not going to be able to get it up now, am I?” Brian crinkled his nose. His mind was too preoccupied with a million ways to define his relationship with Roger, and it made him feel very slightly anxious. “Now all I can think about is John and Freddie.” 

“Why not? It doesn’t usually stop you.” 

_“Fuck me...”_ Brian mumbled under his breath, but an unmistakable grin was painted across his face. No matter how caught up in his own head he was, Roger’s stupid comments never failed to make him smile. 

“I’m trying to!” The blonde whined. He slipped a hand under Brian’s shirt, slowly tracing his stomach with his fingertips, trying to convince him at least a little bit. It wasn’t often that they turned each other down, but it was quite obvious that Roger had struck a chord with Brian at the mention of their friends. 

“Go away.” Brian huffed, with a pointed look to show his lack of interest in Roger’s advances. “I don’t like you.” 

The blonde stared back, through narrowed eyes. He wasn’t having any of it. “Whatever you say, love.” Roger simply responded, with a shrug of the shoulders. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, ready to stand up from the bed. 

Brian, on the other hand, made no effort to move from his position on the bed. He was far too comfortable, and wanted to avoid their friends for as long as possible. 

“Are you ready for this?” 

At long last, Brian stood up from the bed, and nodded. 

And with that, the two men headed downstairs with their hands intertwined; their heads full of what was about to come.

**Author's Note:**

> hi !! i haven’t given up on You’re My Best Friend, i’m just in a massive writer’s block with it right now and anything i seem to actually write is crap, so i started writing this to bring myself out of it but it’s actually... alright. so i hope you enjoy
> 
> edit: holy shit, i didn’t realise how long this was until i actually published it. i’ve been working on a second chapter, i might upload it in a few days ;)


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